Tuesday, 27 March 2018

As the primary webpresence of the Tauros Programme is not very comprehensive considering their multiple herds and crossbreeding results, one has to pick together information and picture material from all possible kinds of other sources. In this case, someone else did it for me and I want to present some of the photos here. The identity (that is, ancestry and breed combination) of 99% of the individuals is not evaluable for non-members of the Tauros Programme, and I have become quite tired of trying to make guesses based on the animals' look what kind of combination they might be, because having experiences in looking at crossbreeds of aurochs-like cattle will tell you it is nearly impossible. However, in some cases where it is a bit less unclear I will share my thoughts/suspicions with you, but at the disclaimer that it could always be something completely different. Maashorst

This the Maashorst bull. Breed combination is unknown to the public, but it might be another Maremmana x Pajuna - at least its looks are completely intermediary between both breeds. The photo reveals that he cannot be very large, perhaps the size of a Heck bull (and thus about 140cm at the shoulders or so).

The above photo is the first photo I have ever seen that shows wisent and aurochs-like cattle next to each other. It is good to see both species side by side once again. Once fence will be removed, it will be very interesting how the two species will interact behaviourally, ecologically and reproductively.

Photos like these worry me, on the other hand. In most grazing projects the cattle are fenced of for reasons of conservation and commonsense, but here cattle and visitors obviously can approach each other closely and it is only a matter of time until that goes wrong. One incident might be enough to mark the end of the herd. Herpeduin

The Herpeduin bull in profile view. He has really nice looks, although the horns could face more inwards. I like its elongated snout and the shoulder hump, the colour is beautiful. I think he is likely that it is half Maremmana, no clue on the other half.

Most likely a cross cow. KeentPhotos by Peter Mulder on FlickRThe photo gallery shows a lot of photos of various animals from Keent, some are pure others are young crossbreeds. Most of the offspring is from Manolo Uno, the Maremmana x Pajuna bull, but the exact combination of the individuals is not determinable for me. Ziva voda Modra

This is a new herd in the Czech Republik, built of three animals born in Milovice. All in all, I like most of the individuals. Many of them are comparably slender, some of them have elongated snouts and others have a horn volume that is at least not small. Most of them have an authentic colour with a tendency towards a satisfying sexual dimorphism. They do resemble Taurus cattle, which is not surprising that both projects use similar or the same breed (Sayaguesa) and both strains resemble their common ancestor, the aurochs. However, what I still miss is a breed that reliably adds large size and long legs, as most of the cross results so far as much as many of the founding breeds/individuals, lack large body size and many of the bulls could be more long-legged. Also, they might need a boost in horn volume. Although the horns of the individuals of the Czech herds are comparably impressive, they are still smaller than the usual spectrum found in the aurochs, especially considering that we are comparing horn sheaths of the living animal with the fossil and subfossil horn cores of aurochs skulls. Most of the crossbred individuals lack the inwards curve of their horns, the horn tips regularly face outwards. It is not easy to fixate inwards-curving horns in a "breeding-back" herd as this trait is very rare among primitive breeds. This is a universal problem in "breeding-back" herds. The Taurus cattle herd in the Lippeaue has a number of individuals that are good in this respect because it is strongly influenced by a Sayaguesa cow with accurately inwards-curving horns (named Dona-Urraca) and many of the founding Heck cattle and Chianina were not entirely contraproductive in this respect as well. So the Tauros project needs a breed or at least good individuals contributing this trait. They already use Maronesa, which is the breed with the most pronounced inwards-curve in my opinion, which is an advantage. So in order to increase the frequency of aurochs-like inwards-curving horns it might be wise to increase the influence of Maronesa on the herds. They might then need the influence of a truly large and long-legged breed to compensate. The Tauros Programme revealed that they consider using Maltese cattle, a breed where the more primitive herds are truly remarkable regarding body conformation, proportions and skull shape (I hope they are comparable to Chianina in size). They would probably be very beneficial for all of the Tauros herds, but it is not clear whether they have made a serious effort yet to get their hands on individuals or semen from this breed. However, I think there is no need to hurry or to draw premature conclusions yet. As far as I can tell, the Tauros Programme is still in the "building up quantity" phase, that is, creating herds and breeding sites in various countries and waiting for them to grow. Once the desired quantity level is reached, they can start to focus on quality. Deficiencies that might become evident, like a lack of size or horn volume/curvature, can be fixed in that stage by more stringent selection or the inclusion/increase of the use of certain breeds that add these elements that are missing.

Friday, 23 March 2018

Two more calves for the Auerrind project have been born. They were born by two Chianina cows (one of them is La Nova with a withers height of 165cm) and the father is Leo, one of the two Sayaguesa bulls of the project. So the calves are Sayaguesa x Chianina, a combination that has already produced a number of interesting animals in the Lippeaue (see here or here). One calf is male and the other one female. Therefore, theoretically, F2 of this interesting and promising combination are possible in about three years. The genetic basis would be comparably narrow as it would be the result of the mating of halfblood-siblings, but as the parental generation is composed of two non-related breeds, the genetic basis should be or at least might be broader than between two randomly selected average Frisians or Fleckvieh. And diversity can still be added in later generations. A comprehensive report on the current state of the breeding herds of the project is about to come according to Claus Kropp.

About this blog

This blog is on everything related to the so-called “breeding-back” of extinct animals: From the extinct animals themselves, over their often domestic descendants and dedomestication to news and facts about various breeding-back projects, reports and photos from my own breeding-back related trips. I try to have a balanced and fact-based approach to this subject and to dismantle many of the popular myths. Enjoy!

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About me

My major interest always have been extinct animals, from dinosaurs to Pleistocene megafauna and more recent extinctions. Besides that I am interested in evolution, genetics and ecology.
I am also an amateur animal artist, making drawings and models mostly of extinct animals.